First £50,000 of grants from Ardersier Port Community Fund awarded to Nairnshire projects
A new pool of funding set up by owners at Ardersier Port has awarded £50,000 to twelve projects since launching in August.
Created by Haventus and administered by Foundation Scotland, the Ardersier Port Community Benefit Fund is a scheme which makes available £100,000 in grants each year, over 10 years, for projects in the Community Council areas of Ardersier and Petty, Cawdor, Croy and Culloden Moor and West Nairn and Suburban.
In early November, two projects received the very first awards from the fund: Nairn Academy Parent Council was awarded £980 to support weekly excursions for pupils with complex learning needs to the Haven Centre, while Ardersier Primary PTA received £1,000 to fund a Christmas pantomime performance.
Later in November, ten additional projects were awarded funding, with the largest grant - £10,000 - going to MCR Pathways, an organisation that provides vital mentoring services to young people to help address the gap between poor life-chances and educational outcomes.
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The funds will be used to support the activities of the mentoring coordinators at Culloden and Nairn Academies.
Caroline Purves, head of schools north region at MCR Pathways, said: “MCR Pathways is absolutely thrilled to receive a grant from the Haventus Fund and be powered up to support more Highland young people on their journey to success.
“This generous contribution allows us to work in partnership with the teams of dedicated staff at Nairn and Culloden Academies and bring our transformative mentoring programme to young people in the communities they serve.
“MCR Pathways highly values every chance to work in partnership with businesses and organisations in each local area to ensure every young person has someone to help them find their right path. T
“The opportunity to work with the Haventus Fund, to welcome them into the MCR family of supporters, and to extend our Highland offer to bring more and lasting support and opportunities to local young people has brought such excitement to our team. We can't wait to get started.”
All funding decisions are agreed by a local panel, made up of community members whose local experience and familiarity with the places they live are vital to ensure the Fund remains community focused, and that decisions are made with knowledge and insight.
In November, Croy Primary Parent Council also received £9,268 for extra-curricular activities for children, and The Highlanders Museum was awarded £7,500 for interactive display screens to enhance visitor experiences.
Other awards included £5,760 to Blue Space Highland to deliver wellness sessions, and Team Hamish received £5,000 for improving accessibility in Nairn's links area.
Leeanne Mackay, co-founder of Blue Space Highland, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding for our project.
“It's a fantastic boost for us and will enable us to continue to deliver Wellness sessions next year. We have also secured new providers for sessions so in addition to Paddleboarding and Kayaking we will be offering Wild Swimming and Beach Yoga.
“We would like to encourage individuals to self refer directly via our website or speak with their GP and go through community link workers for referral into our service. We're supporting individuals to find head space within Blue space.”
Nairn Parkrun was awarded £3,800 to establish a local Parkrun, and Connecting Carers received £3,000 for supporting young carers through play therapy.
Additional awards included £1,910 to Albyn Housing Society Ltd for a communal garden project, £1,000 to Ardersier Community Hub for path maintenance and food bank supplies, and £899 to Highland Bowhunters Archery Club for equipment replacement.
Jonathan Milne, Haventus chief corporate affairs officer said: “It is great to see the first tranche of awards from the fund benefiting such a wide range of organisations. We are grateful for the hard work of the panel in selecting the recipients of these initial awards, and to all the organisations that applied for funding.”
Anyone looking for more information on the community benefit fund and find out how to apply can find them on the dedicated Foundation Scotland page.
